Local governments were urged on Friday to cooperate in the national
fight against pollution and cast off their parochial focus for the
benefit of the whole nation.
The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) said in
Beijing that local protectionism remained a big obstacle in the way
of the country's anti-pollution campaign that SEPA launched since
early this year.
A
total of 18,084 enterprises have been punished for damaging the
environment in the past several months.
But 10,000 cases have yet to be settled as local governments have
refrained from taking action for fear that punishment would impair
local economy, said Jiang Yandong, director in charge of law
enforcement with SEPA.
Friday, the SEPA exposed three such pollution cases that have yet
to be resolved.
Ten paper mills in the city of Wuzhong in northwest China's
Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region produced tens of thousands tons
of paper without even one sewage disposal system.
The paper mills -- one of which is listed on the domestic stock
market -- discharges more than 44 million tons of waste water to
the upper reaches of the Yellow River annually.
A
similar situation is also prevalent in Shenze County in north
China's Hebei Province.
Three papermaking enterprises which discharged untreated waste into
the environment were granted with certificates that stated they had
met pollution control standards.
In
another case, three environmental protection officials were
attacked when enforcing punishments over pollution cases in the
city of Zhuozhou of Hebei Province.
All these cases, due to the inactive attitude of the local
governments and enterprises, are still unsettled.
Vice-Premier Wen Jiabao recently pointed out that central
government should strengthen environmental protection by " harshly
penalizing'' incompetent local officials whose responsibility is to
safeguard the environment, as well as those enterprises involved in
serious pollution cases.
So
far, a total of 418 local officials and enterprise managers have
been punished during the nationwide anti-pollution campaign,
according to the report of the SEPA.
(China
Daily 10/13/2001)